Puppy Love
by Vicktionary
Summary: Scout has the hotts for none other than Miss Pauling and tries his best to get her attention. Sadly, she doesn't find him as awesome as he finds himself. One-sided Scout x Miss Pauling.


#4 Puppy Love

It was time for another team meeting. Which really, was just to discuss what they knew about the enemy so far and what new strategies they could deploy in future to take them down more effectively. This meant that it was a day of sitting around in a cramped, dodgy room with no windows and dim lighting at best. And it meant having to put up with each other for hours on end without the hope of finishing early and going back to their own schedules.

Scout loathed these meetings, but everybody hated it just as much as the next guy. Spy would have to bite his tongue and hold off on quipping back lines about Heavy's bad English (and/or weight) and Soldier's questionable lucidity. Pyro wouldn't be able to play with fire. And Sniper would have to be in the same room as Scout. And Spy.

Scout had, in past, made a few attempts to say he was busy, or make himself vanish for the day, just to try and get away from the more boring side of being a mercenary. The punishment was usually quite severe, he had found, so he stopped making efforts to skip out of town on the day these meetings were held.

However, these days Scout found himself looking forward to these meetings. There was something he found that made the hours pass by much quicker. Something that made it okay for him to stay still for more than just 5 minutes. And that something, was Miss Pauling.

He had previously overlooked her due to her deceptively simple appearances, and had made cheap advances on her simply out of principle. She's a woman, and he's the epic Scout. What woman couldn't resist him? While a psychologist could probably answer this question after just an hour of talking to him, Scout soon found that Miss Pauling also one to consistently reject him time and time again.

The harsher reality was that she didn't even reject him. She simply flat-out ignored him. To say he was merely a blurry image to her would be overly optimistic.

Was he just enticed by the thrill of the chase? Scout had previously pondered this, too. He also noticed that whenever Miss Pauling looked his way, his heart would flutter in excitement and glee, in the hopes that she was looking at him and only him.

Then that fleeting moment was crushed when he found out she was just trying to pass out a leaflet to Heavy, right next to him.

"We need somebody to go from here-" Miss Pauling stamped her finger on the map, "to here- and grab the enemy intelligence and make a quick escape. It's crucial that you aren't seen."

"I can do that for you, Miss Pauling!" He boasted, puffing out his chest with a self-assured, smug grin. "I'm the man for the job. I'm a force-a-nature. They won't even know what hit 'em!"

He could hear Spy chuckling deeply to himself. Whatever he was thinking, Scout didn't care. Spy could stick it in his pipe, and literally smoke it. He just wanted Miss Pauling to notice him. God, she looked so beautiful today. She was wearing that pink dress he adored that went great with her skin, and her hair was up in a neat bun. All he could think about was how her hair would fall if she were to untie it, and how it would smell.

After spending all this time with such close-quarters to men and _only_ men, it was truly refreshing to see a woman. Scout had considered, however, that maybe this was why he couldn't take his mind off of Miss Pauling; that maybe any bottle of water would look like the most beautiful thing in the world to a deprived man stranded at desert.

To his major disappointment, however, she seemed to think differently. "I was thinking that Spy could do this. He has the ability to cloak, after-all."

_Damnit!_ Scout's smile turned into a sad frown.

"Ah, ouais. This much is true." Spy mused, "But I do agree that Scout would also do a decent job. I cannot run as fast as him, you see." And the Frenchmen's hand patted down on the young man's shoulder.

Scout looked up, puzzled. But the masked man simply gave him a knowing wink and a smirk.

Miss Pauling, oblivious to their secret dynamic, pursed her lips in thought at the suggestion. Then finally, she looked at Scout to see what his take on this was.

"Y- Yeah, ain't no-one can run as fast as me!" Said Scout, when he found the ability to speak again. _Oh god, she's looking straight at me. _

"But everybody else can keep their bloody flapper shut. Can we trust him not to give himself away?"

_Fuck you, Sniper. You can go die a painful death in the jaws of a crocodile in the outback._

"I think we can trust him." Spy insisted once more, giving the Aussie a fixed look. Sniper scoffed at him. Their rivalry was something akin to the ever-going conflict between England and France, and this was something tacitly understood by the team. They had learn to just let them exchange remarks and glares at one another.

Miss Pauling's gaze settled upon Scout, who has trying his darndest to keep his cheeks from blushing. He had a reputation to uphold, damnit. So he continued grinning that arrogant, cocky, smug grin of his until she said something else.

"Okay, we'll go with that." She finally made her decision. "But you need to know that we cannot afford failure. Can I have your assurance that you won't let me down?"

Had Scout not been so stunned by being addressed so directly by her, he would have nodded as fast as he could run. But right now, all he could spit out was, "I won't let you down."

"Alright then." And forward did she move with the rest of the plan, resuming her discussion with the rest of the team.

Once everybody's eyes were off him, Scout glanced up to Spy and meagrely managed a hushed and secretive "Thanks."

Spy chuckled to himself once more and said, "Ah, _l'amour de choit_."


End file.
